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by bryanlarsen 2544 days ago
A large part of that was due to illegal action on Intel's part; giving massive rebates to any manufacturer who agreed to go Intel-only. Intel paid AMD $1.25B in compensation. Such tactics won't be available to Intel this time around.
2 comments
PedroBatista 2543 days ago
Don't be so sure, Intel always played "dirty" and always worked to make sure they have a huge influence over the major software giants of the time. In the last decades always made sure to present hardware manufacturers with "offers they can't refuse".

One of those offers costed them $1.25B more than they expected but was totally worth it.

For example, Intel gets a lot of money but also "gives" a lot of money in the form of "incentives" / tip / kickbacks to a lot of hardware manufacturers and the usual palm grease to an army of managers, execs, tech "journalists", governments, etc.

To be noted, they also have been competent enough making chips most of the time.

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Symmetry 2543 days ago
Spending down your warchest to pay manufacturers to use your chips isn't something that even Intel can keep up forever. If AMD had kept up their performance lead eventually Intel wouldn't have been able to keep up its kickbacks.
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TheOperator 2543 days ago
Intel doesn't need to do it forever. They need to hold out for Intel 7nm slated for 2021 and they need 7nm to be good. From a zero sum monopolist perspective it makes a lot of sense for Intel to be hamstringing AMD here.

What Intel needs to be careful about is while they fend off AMDs attacks in desktop/server also need to keep an eye on ARM coming after them on mobile. How long until Linux based Chromebooks come with Qualcomm CPUs like 7cx become standard? The chips are better than Intels low TDP offerings so long as they don't have to emulate x86_64. They could spend all their money on a phyrric victory crushing AMD only to lose a different market.

It's a tough job being king with upstarts always after your neck.

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dralley 2543 days ago
> If AMD had kept up their performance lead eventually Intel wouldn't have been able to keep up its kickbacks.

That's hard to do when your R&D budget is shattered. Intel was fined for far less money than they caused damage to AMD.

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